Amazon Gags On Gaga

theodp writes "Having hawked Google Chrome over the weekend with an ad that aired on SNL, Lady Gaga turned her attention Monday to hyping Amazon's Cloud Player service. Fans were delighted to learn that they could download Gaga's entire 'Born This Way' album for a mere $0.99, until technical difficulties set in. 'Amazon is experiencing high volume and downloads are delayed,' Amazon said in a statement. 'If customers order today, they will get the full Lady Gaga, Born This Way album for $0.99. Thanks for your patience.' Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service, lowering the album's rating to three stars. So, was that karma for upstaging Donald Knuth at the Googleplex?"

Comments

Amazon Gags on Gaga

[ColdWetDog]

Amazon has better taste than I thought.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a mighty long penis she's got there.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[timeOday]

I don't think her music can stand on its own, but I enjoyed her performances on SNL as visual spectacle. I am not sure how her performances are supposed to be taken, or if she even has anything particular in mind; maybe it's unintentionally funny, or maybe that is the intention.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[obarthelemy]

The girl can sing, and write lyrics and music. Can't dance though. Some of her songs are very good in their unplugged versions, and she does not shy away from catering to mainstream tastes with overproduced studio versions, videos, and her looks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiqHICcqi9s for an unplugged pokerface
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zet3eLu-ms#t=2m43s just for fun, another good unplugged something else, by someone else.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[blair1q]

Think Busby Berkeley meets Grace Jones.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[jgagnon]

I was thinking Emo Phillips meets Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[HaZardman27]

maybe if I was a 12 year old girl who had never heard good music before, I would like her. But thank dog I am not, so I am not so easily fooled.

Not saying I enjoy Lady Gaga, but you seem to like Madonna, meaning I really wouldn't trust your judgements in music.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[Muros]

Thanks for that. Neither is the kind of thing I'd really listen to, more of a hard rock/metal type guy but I really enjoyed those.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[blair1q]

Marilyn Manson meets Britney Spears

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[jpate]

obligatory SMBC.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[thomst]

I don't think her music can stand on its own, but I enjoyed her performances on SNL as visual spectacle.

Speaking as a singer/songwriter/musician, I have to disagree. Gaga's material is not really my cup of coffee, but she certainly can write compelling songs. She sings very well, too - her voice is powerful, well-trained, and has decent range. And she can play a variety of instruments quite capably. (Before she became a pop star, she made her living as a session pianist in the demanding and very competitive world of NYC recording studios. You don't get those jobs because of hype - you have to be very, very good on your instrument.)

As I say, dance pop is really not my thing. At all. But, out of curiosity, I watched her "Monster Ball" HBO special. Relentless pandering to her audience and her obvious self-esteem issues aside, under all the glitz and spectacle, I was pleasantly surprised at her songwriting and performance chops. In particular, her new single, "Born This Way", with which she closed the show, is a genuine pop anthem - and, behind the closing credits, her a capella reprise of its chorus was even more powerful than the kitchen-sink production number that preceded it.

As for the "visual spectacle" aspect of her show, her (occasionally tiresome) speeches to the audience made it quite clear that she cultivates a fan base of people who consider themselves social outcasts - and gays, in particular. Since outrageous flamboyance is pretty much the sine qua non of gay pop culture, hers makes perfect sense, when seen in that context.

Anyway, I don't plan to buy her albums, but I have gained considerable respect for her as a writer, singer, and musician.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[Anonymous Coward]

Taste has nothing to do with money

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[reboot246]

I'm still not sure that she wasn't previously a man. She has very masculine facial features. Does she shave before her concerts?

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[TheTyrannyOfForcedRe]

I'm still not sure that she wasn't previously a man. She has very masculine facial features. Does she shave before her concerts?

You can't be serious. Look at her hip to waist ratio. Those wide hips and that little wait mean gaga was always a girl. I wonder about the sexual orientation of any guy who buys into the gaga tranny myth. A hip/waist ratio like hers should be lighting up 1/2 of your neurons.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[obarthelemy]

there's very little in common. Madonna can't sing but can dance, Gaga is the opposite. They're both using costumes and scandal to get attention, but they're far from the only ones, nor the first (Cher anyone ?). I think Gaga is a much better writer/composer.

Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga

[Anonymous Coward]

Any song sounds kinda good when played unplugged by an artist with a bit of talent.

Best example of this is prolly Milow's cover of 'ayo technology'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE9IchvpOPk
That song of complete shite and milow is a whiny dick but put the 2 together in an unplugged version an people will think it's beautiful and deep.

Humm.. paints bad.

[Tei]

As a user of Reddit, this is not news to me. Reddit is down more than any other normal website, and seems something to do with some *magical words here* from Amazon.

I have read somewhere that the cloud is a good solution for scalability. Maybe the Amazon Cloud sould search for a Cloud hosting solution :D

It seems Amazon has the skill to cut wikileaks money, but lack the skill to create a proper cloud.

Re:Humm.. paints bad.

[synapse7]

If amazon's cloud service can't support users downloading a CD how will it ever survive in production environments?

Re:Humm.. paints bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't totally blame Amazon there. From what I have seen from the admins and programmers of Reddit I would say they're definitely not the best of the best.

Don't get me wrong, the Amazon cloud obviously has major problems at times but I would say at least 75% of the time Reddit goes down it's because of a stupid design or mistake from Reddit themselves.

Re:Humm.. paints bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Reddit is down more than any other normal website, and seems something to do with some *magical words here* from Amazon.

No, it usually has to do with *f words here* bad programming and serious IT underhiring from Reddit. During at the time the most serious outage at the Amazon Cloud at least both Netflix and Heroku had almost nil trouble keeping their services up, while Reddit was down for around three days. This is because when designing infrastructure that scales on the cloud you must defensively design and code each component. You can find more about this particular way of designing scalable infrastructure by googling about a testing metodology netflix calls "chaos monkey". Reddit fails because its poorly designed and doesn't account for the reduced uptime that comes naturally together with "infinite" and cheap "just in time" scalability.

This is a well known fact and openly discussed by any engineer I know about that is seriously into AWS. It was even admitted in part by Reddit themselves here. You can also read more about that particular outage and how to design infrastructure that can resist it and keep scaling from netflix, and also google for deeply technical blogposts like this one that explain this in layman terms or in a technical way.

As a 30 year old engineer that has at least some experience with AWS and GAE I am completely baffled by how many of my peers still fail to understand what "the cloud" is about deep down to the bare metal. We are supposed to be trying to keep up with how technology changes, and mocking and downplaying new technologies we don understand with petty excuses such as "reddit goes down because AWS sucks" seems like really backwards excuses to stay behind.

DISCLAIMER: I'm posting AC because I'm involved with at least one of the businesses I mention (it's not Amazon BTW).

There is no such thing as karma.

[geekoid]

Personal anecdote: I had no problems at all downloading the album.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Haedrian]

I'd say the fact that you successfully downloaded the album in question is a sign of bad karma.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[coinreturn]

There's a "Post Anonymously" checkbox, you know?

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think the other responders gets it. I read this as he had not problems downloading the album *which wouldn't download*. So he doesn't have a problem with NOT downloading the album.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[cpu6502]

>>>I'd say the fact that you successfully downloaded the album is a sign of bad karma.

The music you listen to isn't any better. (Probably.) I like Gaga's songs, and radio music in general, which has led a lot of friends to criticize me for it. So I naturally ask, "What do you listen to?" and then they play stuff that sounds, amazingly, like the stuff on the radio. (Except with an 'alternative' label.)

Point: People are so damn quick to criticize other people's tastes. And I'm sick of it. If that guy wanted to download Gaga's album for 99 cents, big fucking deal. It's HIS life, not yours, so stop insulting the man.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Zerth]

Some of us only bought it for the free 20 gigs of cloud storage.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[cpu6502]

>>>>>I had no problems at all downloading the album.
>>
>>I'd say the fact that you successfully downloaded the album in question is a sign of bad karma.

-1 Adult Acting Like a Teenager Who Never Learned Any Manners "Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable."

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[billcopc]

You must be new here.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

>>>>>I had no problems at all downloading the album.
>>
>>I'd say the fact that you successfully downloaded the album in question is a sign of bad karma.

-1 Adult Acting Like a Teenager Who Never Learned Any Manners "Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable."

You went from being a child to "think of the children" without passing through maturity

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[stealth_finger]

Amen to that, people need to stop worrying about what other people like and concentrate on what they like. (and that's not gaga defence, personally I wish she'd fuck off but other people seem to like it so fair play)

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[h4rr4r]

Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable."

Someone is new here.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[EastCoastSurfer]

I'm with you! I listen to nearly everything (not much country though) depending on my mood.

Lady Gaga is actually a very good singer. You can find her old stuff on youtube that she did pre being famous. Her current act is all about entertainment with music and visuals and I think she delivers.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[b0bby]

I downloaded about half the songs before it died on me; now it says it has been too long & I can't finish the download. I figured my kids would want it & for $0.99 it *should* have been easier than TPB. But no, now I have a ticket open with Amazon. I've had good luck buying their mp3s before, so I guess I'll let this one slide.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[teslafreak]

-1 Adult Acting Like a Teenager Who Never Learned Any Manners "Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable."

So then I assume you believe no one would take offence to your comment either? It's a public forum, not that I condone it, but people are jerks.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Talderas]

Are you sure he wasn't implying that he pirated the album off of bit torrent?

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[scubamage]

Agreed. I like Lady Gaga. I find it interesting that there seems to be so much vitriol on a site popular with geeks towards a woman who was heavily inspired by things like Metropolis. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, they all stink.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[DJRumpy]

Not only that, but they neglect to realize that there would be no 'alternative' without a mainstream...

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[chill]

Ditto. For $0.99, I just had it store the album in my cloud drive. I may use the storage at some time.

Though in all honesty, I prize bandwidth more than storage space. I can't envision seriously using teh clouds without a hell of a lot more bandwidth. Thinking about how all this won't scale at the office if EVERYONE tried to do it at once...

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable.

You heard it here folks. Troll64, a former outspoken supporter of free speech, no longer supports free speech!

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[jd]

If you can find this on the radio, I'd be impressed. Same with these guys or these. Radio just doesn't play the stuff I listen to. Ever.

Now, your point of not judging other people's music, that I can agree with 100%. Except for rap, though I suppose I'll allow two exceptions, so I guess it's less a rule and more an opinion. Yeah, I quite agree that it's their life, their choice in music, etc. I'm not a fan of Gaga but that doesn't give me any right to judge those who are. I do question the inclusion of some of Gaga's more... extreme work on the kid's compilation albums advertised on Cartoon Network - the one place not showing cartoons any more. That doesn't feel right. But, hey, I didn't object to The Strangler's Golden Brown when a kid, so what do I know?

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[default luser]

Or worse, consider how fast the cloud hype ship will crash when employers start blocking the cloud at work.

Since mobile internet already has tight caps, there's not much else use for the cloud.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[beckett]

"Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable."

your comment hurts and insults me.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[LWATCDR]

Actually I find her music too be okay. But if you like her that is great. That is the funny thing when I went back and got a much of the music I really liked from my youth and listened to them I realized one thing. Most of them are really bland. I wonder how many people will feel the same in 20 years. Oh and the music that I used to really like that I now think is bland. I still kind of like it. Not because it is great but because of the memories it brings back.
If you like Lady Gaga then you like like Lady Gaga and there is nothing to be ashamed of it. but I will give you some advice. If you think that it is deep and meaning full your wrong. Any meaning you think is there is from you. That is also not a bad thing. It is more import for people to be deep and meaningful than pop music,
 

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

I listen to autolux. I win!

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[schlachter]

WRT your sig...

Your dial up might as well provide 100TB of data...it's immaterial after the few GB.

Whereas with Verizon Wireless...

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lady Gaga's songs have beat and will get me to nod my head, but I'm not sheep enough so say it's good and that it has meaningful lyrics. It's complete crap that you can still dance to. That's it.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of us take in to account the artist (Bjork), or performer (Lady Gaga) in question when we criticize music. We value true artists, not imitators trying to make a buck. Sure, Lada G. sounds a lot like Bjork in a few songs, and acts and dresses crazy weird like her too. What sets them apart is that Bjork is channeling her world view as an artist (take it or leave it) and Lady Gaga is trying to make headlines and money.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

watch her unplugged with a piano. She can pull it off with brio, dumb bitches like Brittney can't

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you need to know who the artist is before you criticize music, you aren't criticizing music. You're looking for justification of your own prejudices.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[praxis]

If all opinions stink, then would you like to live in a world where there was no opinion? Opinions are what make us.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable."

Unless your political opinions, taste in music, choice of operating system, brand of computer, programming language, religious beliefs, window manager, or linux distro are inconsistent with the determinations of the hive mind. Oh, or if your target lives in the US and isn't entirely self-loathing.

Then you can get as nasty as you want.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[icebike]

I tend to agree.

But Gaga on MP3 is better than Gaga on Youtube.

As you say, she can actually sing, unlike so much else of what passes for pop culture these days.
She is a distraction to her own music, which stands by itself. You might say her music does not need HER.

I prefer without the visuals.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[icebike]

Wrong radio.
Stream it off the net.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

I could be wrong, but I think you could have gotten the free 20 gigs of cloud storage by buying one of the many *free* albums too. (I had thought I got my 20 gigs this way, but I actually got the $3.99 Croweology album.)

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[muridae]

No, that's pretty much what critiquing art is about. Did the artist achieve what they set out to do, is the product interesting, do they get their message across. "Do I like listening to it" is only part of the discussion.

However, whether you weigh the artist's intent in your opinion of their art is your choice.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[drsquare]

Plenty of generic guitar music on the radio. Including the Quo.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[laejoh]

I listen to Bach, so fuck off, and get of my lawn! :)

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[pandrijeczko]

I'd agree if I wasn't currently singing along & tapping my foot to a Bachman-Turner Overdrive CD at this moment in time.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[pandrijeczko]

I didn't rate his solo stuff after he split up with Man, Turner & Overdrive.

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[evansvillelinux]

Point: People are so damn quick to criticize other people's tastes. And I'm sick of it. If that guy wanted to download Gaga's album for 99 cents, big fucking deal. It's HIS life, not yours, so stop insulting the man.

Amen to this. Some of us have very eclectic musical tastes. I remember in the early 90's making a mix tape that included Garth Brooks, Metallica, Billy Ray Cyrus, Reba McIntyre, Led Zepplin & KISS, just as an example. Music is meant to speak to your soul, not to impress your friends. And for the record, I bought the Gaga album from Amazon for $0.99. ;-)

Re:There is no such thing as karma.

[Anonymous Coward]

-1 Adult Making New Accounts When People Told Him That He's Still Retarded.

Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Duradin]

Thanks for making the ratings less useful.

You may think you're all-important and that your one time shipping experience should mean as much as someone who is reviewing the actual usefulness and quality of the product but all you're doing is adding more useless noise to the reviews.

So hats off to you Mr. Garbage-In.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[wjousts]

Agreed. That annoys me too when people down rate a product because of some problem unrelated to the quality (or lack thereof) of the product itself.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[MozeeToby]

But... they're not getting me my (nearly) free stuff fast enough! I'm deserve to get this album now because they told me that I could have it and I want it now and if I can't have it now I'm going to do whatever I can to hurt them.
[/sarcasm]

Honestly, people complain about food stamps and medical care being the problem with the entitlement generation, but I really don't have a problem with feeling entitled to basic human needs. The idea that you are entitled to the latest Lady Gaga album, and being so angry about a day or two delay in getting it that you sabotage the rating system, is quite frankly terrifying to me.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if the album really deserves a rating better than "1".

Personally, I wouldn't make that assumption.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[DrgnDancer]

Indeed. I'm not a huge fan of the Gaga, but down rating her album because Amazon is having problems is like saying the album sucks becasue the store you bought it in has roaches. It's unfair to her, and unfair to others who are trying to judge the quality of the product.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

Tyranny of the masses coupled with selfishness.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Blue Stone]

Amazon need to add a rating system for service/delivery etc for the morons who don't understand the purpose of the rating system that exists but who also need an outlet to complain about their experience.

It might seem like people are abusing the system (and that's true) but it's more true that the system is failing to adequately deal with a phenomenon that exists and isn't going away any time this millenia.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[RazzleFrog]

I see this all the time on apps. People downrate the app because they failed to download it while driving in a tunnel under Antartica in a lead-lined car during a solar flare.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

So hats off to you Mr. Garbage-In.

Indeed - I go as far as completely randomizing (by dice roll) my feedback ratings on sites like Amazon (eBay is different because its typically not a production-line style product but an individual-individual transaction) - anything to throw off anyone running marketing analytics (seriously, everyone should do this in the age of Facebook - "Like" the Devil, add celebrities you dislike to your friends list and un-friend all your family members too).

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[cpu6502]

Well, how else are we pissed-off customers supposed to rate Amazon for poor service (or worse: damaged goods that were supposed to be "new" in quality)?

I don't see a rating bullet for amazon.com anywhere? And there should be. So until there is, I'd downrate their product and let other customers know if it's poorly packaged, or not-as-advertised (like when I purchased a 10-game anthology that was only 5 games).

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[travdaddy]

Thanks for making the ratings less useful.

Just like the Slashdot polls, the ratings are wildly inaccurate. "If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[CRCulver]

Amazon need to add a rating system for service/delivery etc for the morons who don't understand the purpose of the rating system that exists but who also need an outlet to complain about their experience.

There's already such a system but you can only rate service and delivery of items ordered from third-party sellers, not Amazon itself.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[kehren77]

Amazon need to add a rating system for service/delivery etc for the morons who don't understand the purpose of the rating system that exists but who also need an outlet to complain about their experience.

Agreed. I find this is quite common on Amazon. Not sure why people think that shipping issues should be included in a product review. Perhaps they think that Amazon product reviews are the same thing as ebay feedback.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Shippy]

I know, right? I'm not a huge Gaga fan, but hey, $0.99 is a steal. When I went to purchase the album, there was a clear indication on the page that downloads were delayed. I just left my Amazon Downloader going and it was still done in only a couple hours. Some people are just whiners.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[bkpark]

Thanks for making the ratings less useful.

It depends on what you are trying to get out of the ratings. If the rating is meant to reflect the entire purchasing experience, it's entirely appropriate that the overall rating should include how pleasant it was to buy from a particular vendor.

Yes, if you want to use the rating to gauge to product and buy it elsewhere, rather than the site where you found the ratings, including the vendor performance would make the rating less reliable for you, but it's you who are using the rating in an unapproved manner, not the customers who are rating inappropriately.

This isn't to say that ratings break-down by category won't help, though.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

No one is going to base their purchasing decision on Gaga album reviews. No one will be buying the album and not know who the artist is. This is no worse than all the overzealous fans rating their favorites with top scores. If you were talking about a real product, that would be different. Buying badly made hardware can be a problem, buying a pop album however, meh.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[The Archon V2.0]

So hats off to you Mr. Garbage-In.

Scary thought: These are some of the people that vote in elections.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[jcwayne]

Well, it was the one time I really needed to get that dialer app, but thanks to poor service I had to dig the damned DHD out by hand.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[deathlyslow]

Am i the only one to read that as tranny of the masses coupled with selfishness.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[dotancohen]

These people do not know how to separate the Gaga album from the Amazon service. I see it all the time on the http://what-is-what.com/ website: people rate the product or service under discussion instead of rating the article, even though the rating form is very clear.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[frank_adrian314159]

[Delay of Lady Gaga downloading leading to sabotage of an online rating system] is quite frankly terrifying to me.

Dude, if bad ratings having nothing to do with you on an online site terrify you, you need psychological help. Either that or you need serious help with vocabulary (because you don't understand the meaning of the word "terrify") or your overuse of hyperbole.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[0100010001010011]

Which is why you always read a majority of the ratings.

I've bought stuff with a 2.5 rating because all of the 1 stars were "Amazon was slow" "Reseller double charged me". One person wrote a scathing review of a Canon camera because it didn't come with batteries (AA) or an SD card. All the 5 star reviews were reviews of the product.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you read the one-star reviews? Contrary to the garbage-in description provided by /., the negative reviews are virtually all related to the quality of music on the album.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[locallyunscene]

A person's ability to use a given product is definitely a consideration in the quality of that product. Some users' experience in trying to use the product was poor, therefore they gave it a poor rating.

If the "product" is an mp3 copy of a Lady Gaga album then the ratings are valid because they couldn't receive the item as the terms of the sale agreed.

Even if the "product" is a license to listen to digital reproductions of a Lady Gaga album then the ratings are still valid because their inability to actually use their purchased license is still a consideration in the quality of the product.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[QuasiSteve]

Not to mention that a lot of people would still rate all other options negatively anyway, out of spite. Given the people in the story, I'd say they're very, very spiteful.

When's the last time you saw an e-bay review saying "Instead of office chair package contained bobcat. Would not buy again." (xkcd) and then proceed to give 5 stars for shipping?

As it is, the vast majority of reviews are either all 5 stars or all 1 star (or 0 stars, whatever the minimum is), instead of actual individual ratings.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[MozeeToby]

It isn't the ratings that is terrifying, it is the attitude being displayed. And yes, this attitude does terrify me; it is used to justify everything from petty theft and copyright infringement all the way up to money laundering and financial ponzi schemes. People are willing to do harm (however small) to someone who is giving them free things because the free things aren't available when demanded, that is a serious failing of society.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

I rate the entire transaction, start to finish, and I greatly appreciate it when others do as well. For example, I was recently in the market for a small refrigerator for a kegerator conversion. There are certain makes and models that are well suited to that. Based on the ratings and reviews, Amazon is basically incapable of getting that item to you without destroying it in transit. Given that, I went for ship-to-store delivery at a local big box.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[lahvak]

It depends how you interpret the ratings. Interpreting the ratings as a measure of quality of the actual album is flawed, as only people who are interested in the album, and mostly people who will actually purchase it will rate it. I personally would give the album the lowest available rating based on the stuff I have heard from it, but I and other people like me are not very likely to go there and rate it. So the rating cannot be in any way an objective measure of quality of the album.

If you, on the other hand, interpret the rating as a measure of satisfaction with the service you are purchasing, then the low rating is, IMHO, somewhat appropriate.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Duradin]

If I want the "entire purchasing experience" I'll wander on down to an Apple store.

When I want product A to go from warehouse B to doorstep C I use Amazon. If it's poorly packaged or something goes wrong with the shipping there's appropriate feedback channels with Amazon, which are not the product reviews.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[dyingtolive]

Well, this IS a Gaga story.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll just uselessly pile on here and concur. I wish I could find it for the sake of accuracy, but I recently saw a 1- or 2-star review on Amazon that basically said, "This book is terrible. Several pages were torn out and the cover was damaged" (apparently not even in reference to a new copy). I think it led me to pace around my apartment having an imaginary conversation with the reviewer trying to explain the distinction between "the book" and an individual copy of the book.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[mattack2]

I hope in that case you click on the "No" for the "Was this review helpful for you?" question.

(Just like I mark non-reviews on netflix as non-reviews.)

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Threni]

Which is why I don't give a shit about other people's opinions and instead think for myself. At the very least, read a review and see if the person has a point to make which, even if you don't agree with, you can get a feel for what the album/product is like. You get precisely zero information from an integer between 1 and 5; it's completely meaningless.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[PhxBlue]

If American Idol is any indication, people get far more involved with entertainment than they do with politics. So some of them probably do vote in elections, but a lot more of them probably don't.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[drinkypoo]

Amazon need to add a rating system for service/delivery etc for the morons who don't understand the purpose of the rating system that exists but who also need an outlet to complain about their experience.

It's perfectly possible to understand the ratings system and still decide abuse it for your own purposes. But I guess everyone who decides differently from you is a "moron". I hope one day I can be as smart as you are.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

> I'd downrate their product

It's not their product. They don't care.

I'll come along afterwards and have your rating removed as inappropriate.

Re:Thanks for inappropriate ratings

[Blue Stone]

Pretty sure if someone's "abusing" the rating system, I can call them a "moron" without losing too much sleep about it

GugaGaga

[wasimkadak]

Didn't care much about the album. The 20GB cloud storage offered with it seemed worth it.

Re:GugaGaga

[shutdown -p now]

When they just opened, they gave out 20Gb to anyone who'd make any album purchase, and there were in fact a bunch of $0.99 albums there on day 1.

Re:GugaGaga

[wasimkadak]

Well, I guess sometimes too little is not too late! Honestly speaking I did not even realize that there was a delay in the album download.

Re:GugaGaga

[jeremymiles]

Indeed, and if you bought a CD recently, you get a dollar off the download, so I got the download, and 20GB of storage for a year, for nothing. Order #: D01-7112762-2631304 Subtotal of items: $0.99 Discounts/Promotions: - $0.99 ------ Total before tax: $0.00 Tax Collected: $0.00 ------ Total for this Order: $0.00

Re:GugaGaga

[wasimkadak]

Nice! I think the least you can do is given the album a favorable review

Re:GugaGaga

[Kamiza Ikioi]

There were/are many other cheap albums (though not AS cheap, but still). Personally, I liked getting my 20GB with the purchase of The Who's Greatest Hits on sale for, iirc, $2.99.

Re:GugaGaga

[EastCoastSurfer]

Yeah, each month Amazon rotates a bunch of albums into the $5 or less category. I usually scan through and find a couple things I want, and been having luck trying a bunch of new to me classical music.

Re:GugaGaga

[Kamiza Ikioi]

Yeah, it is nice. Though I usually find Independent artists that I like and pay full price for, and feel good about doing.

+1

[Anonymous Coward]

^this

Moronic behaviour

[Andy Smith]

"Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service"

Fortunately those people are morons so we can disregard their silly protest. Amazon should cancel those one-star ratings, but then they'd be accused of censorship, influencing the rating, etc. The whole thing sounds a bit silly to me.

Re:Moronic behaviour

[Quirkz]

Yeah, I'm always confused when the product is fine, but people rate it low because of delivery problems. What does the delivery have to do with the quality of the product? Should be separate ratings, especially for some place like Amazon, where you know what the delivery process is like.

Re:Moronic behaviour

[maxume]

You indicate that it is best to take experience into consideration when evaluating the shipping.

This is also true of internet reviews, they cannot be taken at face value, people may be lying or otherwise trying to mislead, or they may have expectations for a product that are stupid or otherwise absurd.

Re:Moronic behaviour

[cpu6502]

>>>What does the delivery have to do with the quality of the product?

Well one example is when I ordered a 10-game anthology, but amazon only delivered 5 games. It was not the fault of the product, nevertheless the product page was inaccurate (typo). So I left a negative reviewing stating "This package only comes with *5* games not 10," to warn other customers.

That's ultimately what the rating is for - to warn other customers before purchase of potential problems.

Re:Moronic behaviour

[h4rr4r]

That is not a delivery issue. That is a mislabeled product. A low review for that is expected. A delivery issue would be you complaining it took 3 days instead of two for you to get it, or that the fedex man destroyed the package.

Re:Moronic behaviour

[CraftyJack]

That is not a delivery issue. That is a mislabeled product. A low review for that is expected. A delivery issue would be you complaining it took 3 days instead of two for you to get it, or that the fedex man destroyed the package.

OK, how about this: "Product was labeled 'vase'. Received box of broken glass instead."

With Amazon, delivery is part of the deal - and some items have more delivery problems than others. If a large or fragile item isn't likely to make it to my door in one piece, I appreciate the heads-up.

Re:Moronic behaviour

[h4rr4r]

That is a delivery issue, unless the invoice in the box says "Broken Glass".

Delivery is a separate issue. I will admit I hate it when they use some local third rate carrier. They never leave the package and are impossible to get a hold of.

Re:Moronic behaviour

[Quirkz]

If the product is broken because it's inadequately packaged, then it's something that other users might experience and I agree they should be warned. If your local driver drop-kicks all the packages he delivers onto your porch, that's not something which would affect anyone else, and shouldn't be included in the product rating. Sometimes it's a grey area, I realize.

Anonymous should have used an album...

[turbclnt]

...apparently, this would be the best way to DDoS Amazon :).

Re:Anonymous should have used an album...

[rednip]

Anonymous should have used an album...apparently, this would be the best way to DDoS Amazon :).

Yea, throw money at them until they buckle from the traffic!

Re:Anonymous should have used an album...

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect that Amazon can handle a much higher level of traffic on its home page than running through its payment and download provisioning system.

They gagged on Gaga?

[hellfire]

I thought it was put to rest that Lady Gaga does not have a penis. Is this new evidence?

Re:They gagged on Gaga?

[Haedrian]

I'd say anyone who'd claim differently would be subject to a gagging order

Re:They gagged on Gaga?

[PPH]

So then, it may still be gay if its in a three way.

Re:They gagged on Gaga?

[PeterM from Berkeley]

She may not have one, but she can get as many as she wants.

A Day Late and $6 short

[VGPowerlord]

So, I saw this and went to Amazon, only to find out that the "today" mentioned in the summary/article was yesterday, May 23rd. /. editors REALLY need to:
1. Post stories sooner.
2. Fact check.

Re:A Day Late and $6 short

[QuasiSteve]

So, I saw this and went to Amazon, only to find out that the "today" mentioned in the summary/article was yesterday, May 23rd.

You think that's bad. An official sales representative for an electronics company mailed me to inform that part of my order will be available last May 25th (bit lost in translation. For the Dutch: "25 Mei jl.")

I don't know if I'm dealing with time-travelers or file a complaint that despite the item being available for a day shy of a year they haven't sent it to me yet.

Re:A Day Late and $6 short

[andrewirwin]

I think the canonical response is "you must be new here".

Re:A Day Late and $6 short

[Anonymous Coward]

C'mon now, Mr 6-digit ID. The slashdot story is in what happened to Amazon, and celebrities pumping tech services. You know these stories often take between a day and 7 years to make the front page.

If you want timely deal-hunting, go watch slickdeals.

Re:A Day Late and $6 short

[Anonymous Coward]

This. Sad. :( /Loves that GaGa, and not afraid to admit it.

Karma? No...

[recharged95]

Look at the big picture:
Gaga's going to make boat loads of cash from her 0.99 album, Amazon's going to give her a nice gift (more cash) for promoting their cloud service, Gaga got media headlines on this, more people are aware of Gaga (more popular) and will likely sell more stuff in the long run.

and.... Don Knuth is still... Don Knuth... Now who was he again?

Karma is only karma if everyone appreciates it. Otherwise it's religion and no one cares.

Re:Karma? No...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don Knuth... Now who was he again?

He's my homeboy.

Re:Karma? No...

[Anonymous Coward]

Donald Knuth is someone who stands a very good chance of still being well known (if only among computer science people) in 50 or a hundred years. Lady Gaga stands a very good chance of being pretty much entirely forgotten in 10 years.

$.99?!?

[Lucas123]

That's highway robbery for that album. It's pretty much been panned by most critics -- not surprisingly. So what now? She's running out of costumes and gimmicks. http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_reviews/articles/2011/05/23/lady_gagas_born_this_way_is_a_long_awaited_letdown/

Re:$.99?!?

[MightyMartian]

David Bowie and Freddie Mercury did all before, and considerably better. She's like a glam star constructed from spare parts.

Re:$.99?!?

[geekoid]

A couple of the songs are pretty good, and some of them show some indication of good rock. Sadly, they turn into bubble gum music.

I'd love to hear her do some rock.

Re:$.99?!?

[DrgnDancer]

That's fine. Give it a crappy rating becasue it's a crappy album. Giving the album a crappy rating becasue Amazon screwed up the delivery system just makes legitimate bad reviews that much more lost.

Re:$.99?!?

[RogerWilco]

Shrug. Most of the current fans weren't around when David and Freddie did their thing. (or Boy George, Madonna, Prince, etc.)

It's new to them, and GaGa is basically the only one doing it now.

My mom always tells me that fashions have a 30 year cycle. If that's the case, Lady GaGa might be the first of many.

Re:$.99?!?

[Daetrin]

When i checked yesterday "most" critics gave mixed reviews, not that i care a great deal what critics say. I liked her first two albums, so i figured it would be hard to go too wrong for 99 cents. In the worst case scenario i would have wasted.... 99 cents.

After buying it my conclusion was that it's certainly not as good as those first two albums i really liked. Was it a waste of money? Well there are a couple good tracks, so for the price of 99 cents i certainly feel i got my money's worth. Is it worth buying for $10 or whatever the "regular" price is? I probably wouldn't get it at that rate, not unless some of the other songs start growing on me after listening to them some more.

Re:$.99?!?

[RobotRunAmok]

Freddie Mercury did all before

To her credit, I believe she acknowledges this. In fact, that's why she calls her self "Lady GaGa." It's a hat-tip to the old Queen bic-lighter anthem, "Radio Ga Ga"

Re:$.99?!?

[CrackedButter]

I just want to bang her.

Re:$.99?!?

[Lucas123]

Well, that's alleged. I don't think its a "tip of the hat" by any means. The story goes that music producer Rob Fusari, who helped Stefani write some of her earlier songs, compared some of her vocal harmonies to that of Freddie Mercury. Fusari helped create the moniker Gaga, after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga." He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song. [Lady Gaga] was actually a glitch; I typed 'Radio Ga Ga' in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow 'Radio' got changed to 'Lady'. She texted me back, "That's it." After that day, she was Lady Gaga. She's like, "Don't ever call me Stefani again." The New York Post, however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting. Considering Stefani's penchant for exaggeration (i.e., she was an outcast in school), I'm prone to believe the NY Post story. http://www.tntmagazine.com/tnt-today/archive/2011/04/27/lady-gaga-accused-of-faking-tears-over-school-bullying-claims.aspx Gaga performing at "The Bazaar" in Atlanta, Georgia The New York Post, however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.

Re:$.99?!?

[djp928]

I don't know. People who were likely part of the bullying don't remember the bullying? Big surprise! Would it surprise me that she made shit up to get sympathy? Nope. But neither would it surprise me to hear that she was bullied, but the bullies claim they were "just joking" or something similar.

site issue.

[Anonymous Coward]

People will use the fastest tool capable in order to leave instant feedback, especially when they're pissed.

That's why people should use an anonymous comment system with public + and - indicators which instantly affects your views. Cream rises to the top per popular opinion, it pushes better responses up to the top, prevents people from posting things already stated. All you have to do is +1.

This is also another indicator of Amazon's complete lack of scale-ability and reliability.

Stay away from Amazon AWS.

Re:site issue.

[AndrewNeo]

Amazon has a 'was this review helpful?' that most definitely floats useful and non-useful positive and negative reviews.

Re:site issue.

[aevan]

Shit floats.

All public rating does is promote popular (to that demographic) opinion of the moment. Well reasoned, researched and diplomatically written comments can be downgraded into oblivion if it doesn't meet that day's groupthink overmind of raters. By the emergence of calmer heads the next day, the comment has been downrated into oblivion. An identical comment posted hours later could in turn been uprated to the maximum.

As to preventing duplicates... Compare with say, some service (e.g. MMO) forums where you can see on the front page 15 separate threads on the exact same issue - angry people want to rant, not read other rants (until after their rant is posted). You need moderators to prune duplicates to prevent duplicates, which then opens you up to their either pruning dissenting views, or letting the comment hang in unapproved limbo (and unviewed).

Back in Amazon offices...

[Anonymous Coward]

Tech folks conversation with the upper management...

Tech guy : Our servers are heavily stressed, we had to take some measures...

Management: Those anonymous and pirates groups are at it again...i wonder how much money we lost...fuck...

Tech guy: It's not a "pirate" attack of DoS or stuff like that sir/mam. It was... i can hardly believe this myself, but,.. it was Lady Gaga new album that was selling for $0.99, it put too much strain on the servers/clusters/cloud/nebula(for the future buzzword, no need to thank me).

Management: W^W^what did you say?!

To said fans

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me help you out a bit:

http://thepiratebay.org/search/lady%20gaga/0/7/0

You're welcome.

1-stars

[LoganDzwon]

While I feel usually this is fine as customer are rating the entire purchase, not just the product, in this case, I think, Amazon should remove the post that rate the album based on the delivery service. Maybe send the users whom posted an e-mail explaining why, and asking them to try again, then re post their review.

This is nothing new

[Stan92057]

This is nothing new if your a gamer buying a new release of a top 10 game. There excuse though is ,we didnt expect the game to do this well. I say BS sence thats the excuse they use every release.A cloud is nothing more then a server and if you dont have enough servers there will be uploading problems.

na na na boo boo, I'm better than you

[Anonymous Coward]

na na na boo boo, I'm better than you, stick your head in doo doo

I had no problem downloading the album through the cloud service. The problem for me would be listening to it but since I bought it for my wife hopefully I won't have to.

The real story behind *

[Anonymous Coward]

The vast majority of one-star ratings are for the quality of music on this album, which is poor. Saying the one-star ratings are due to download problems is an LG publicity spin that's just blindly repeated. You don't have to take my word for it. Read the one-star reviews yourself.

Geeks care....why?

[geekmux]

Other than this being a story digging on Amazons cloud performance, why exactly should I give two shits about Lady Gaga and her ability to whore out her music? IMHO, 99 cents is overpriced.

And yes, people abuse the star rating system for stupid crap such as slow shipping...been going on for years.

Re:Geeks care....why?

[ChrisMP1]

Have you ever noticed how different people care about different things? Yeah... this is one of those cases.

Here's a Novel Idea ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice! I think the least you can do is given the album a favorable review

Or he could give the album a review based on the quality of the music and songwriting ... not the fact that he got it for free with an induction into Amazon's dependency establishing services. Is he rating the quality of the album or the quality of Amazon's specials?

Re:Here's a Novel Idea ...

[wasimkadak]

There is nothing novel about your idea...I have seen it implemented before.

Finally, the truth comes out:

[Anonymous Coward]

I KNEW she had a penis!

To quote Austin Powers...

[smooth wombat]

"That ain't no woman, that's a man, man!"

GaGa Crashes Amazon? Call Me Skeptical

[RobotRunAmok]

So the greatest living practitioner of the art of Hype and Personal Perpetual Re-invention releases an album that has been universally panned in pre-sale auditions on the world's most robust e-tailer huckster (one in the midst of it's own marketing push to sell cloud storage) and the headlines are all a-chuckle over how Herself's new album is so-o-o-o-o popular (along with the free-for-a-limited-time-only neato-cloud-storage-thingy!) it crashed even Amazon's servers.

Sh'yeah...

Re:GaGa Crashes Amazon? Call Me Skeptical

[blair1q]

Uh-huh. Amazon really wants to promote its global expandable multiplexable file server service as fragile enough to fall over due to simple downloads.

Gaga is a sellout.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lady Gaga is a sellout. You should look her up under her real name Stefani Germanotta on YouTube. She had dark hair and sang Jazz music while playing the piano. Guess she couldn't find success that way so she decided to bleach her hair and wear crazy outfits while attaching herself to the gay community to come off as all liberal and cool.

Re:Gaga is a sellout.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or maybe the gay community liked her act and it was a little off-kilter so she ran with that and it ballooned into a massive career worth a billion dollars at retail and makes you sick to your stomach because you have to reboot computers in an insurance company for $17.50/hr for the rest of your life.

The best Gaga paradoy for scientists

[goombah99]

If you are a scientist, this is just priceless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L4M8m4d0

tip: notice what the costumes are made out of.

Re:The best Gaga paradoy for scientists

[icebike]

Amazing the amount of effort that went into that considering the potential audience.
Very well done.

In soviet russia...

[numbski]

...Lady Gaga gags on you? Soviet Russia might be better than I'd first thought!

Re:The best Gaga parody for scientists

[Anonymous Coward]

That's awesome and scarily true. It really kicks in at the chorus at 1:40. I loved the way the tubes are labeled and the mouse is killer.

"Amazon Gags On Gaga"

[roc97007]

Amazon's not alone.

Anonymous

[Malties]

So the Wikileaks supporters...hackers...cannot bring down Amazon (http://www.gigenetcloud.com/blog/index.php?/archives/42-Reliability-of-Cloud-Proven-After-Wikileaks-Attacks.html) but Gaga can

Hey, seventeen-fifty's commie pay

[Anonymous Coward]

The future's bright indeed for human workers. $0.06/minute burst on my little ten minute test.

If only they could bottle this

[Hognoxious]

Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service, lowering the album's rating to three stars.

Stroke of fucking genius. Next time I do a restaurant review the taxi driver better not get lost on the way home, or I'll say the wine was piss and the food wasn't fit for pigs.

Truth is stranger than fiction ...

[dreb]

never thought I'd see Lady Gaga and Donald Knuth mentioned in the same post.

meted?

[Anonymous Coward]

I read that as meathead the first time through. Kinda made me hungry.

Risking a tangent...

[HikingStick]

What was described is really one of my pet peeves about online ratings systems. The ratings system at Amazon is clearly intended for the product itself, but you'll often see lower marks because of something unrelated to the product (e.g., shipping times, difficulty reaching the seller). To me, that destroys the value of the ratings system.

I often refer to customer ratings at Amazon and other online retailers when making my own purchase decisions [Full disclosure: I'm a regular reviewer at Amazon.] Often, I'll look at those overall ratings if I'm just getting a feel for the products out there. In such cases, where people give the product poor reviews because of problems with the delivery system, they unfairly steer other consumers away from what may be otherwise excellent products.

It would be hard for Gaga to claim any real harm from the practice (simply because of the volume of sales that will be processed anyway), but it could make a huge difference for a small producer or independent craftsperson whose products are sold through Amazon itself, Fulfilled by Amazon, or Amazon's affiliates program.

Send in the Swedes

[gilgongo]

http://thepiratebay.org/search/born%20this%20way/0/7/100

No, this is moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

What's really moronic is that Slashdot posted this all as fact and so many readers assume it is fact.
If you check out the 1-star reviews yourself, you'll find they're almost all descriptive of the poor quality of the tracks on the album.

one-star

[Anonymous Coward]

"Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service"

Actually, I think the rated it one-star because the album sucks @$$.

Three stars

[Thuktun]

Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service, lowering the album's rating to three stars

I didn't see the ad, but happened to see it show up in my Amazon MP3 app on my phone due to the popularity. Listening to the album snippets, I assure you, it deserves the three stars.

A little high

[iliketrash]

$0.99 for a Lada Gaga album? Seems a little high, don't you think.

How is this news?

[rebelwarlock]

So an online service was too bogged down to provide said service. I'm not seeing the "stuff that matters" part of this.

Obligatory Family Guy

[Culture20]

[Cutaway to a small orphan sitting on the steps of an orphanage, red suitcase in hand]
[Carter and Chris drive up to the front, and the orphan runs to the car]
Carter: [During this, the orphan tries to open the door to the car, unsucessfully] Come on! Come on in! Your family's waiting in here! There are toys, and a puppy! And food that's not served from warming trays!
[The orphan desperately tries to open the door, and then bangs on the window of the door, as a small puppy eagerly presses up against the glass, barking]
Carter: Come on, you gotta want it!
[Orphan throws the briefcase at the window, only for it to bounce off the glass]
Carter: Aw, you gotta do better than that! Okay i guess you don't want a new family, toys and a puppy.

This is what Amazon was doing to those poor orphans gaga for Gaga.

Dear Lady Gaga...

[pandrijeczko]

The deal is this, okay?

I'll buy your album for 99c if you buy a new lightbulb with it so you can stop getting dressed in the dark.

Price : Demand : Capacity

[HTH NE1]

Interesting. So the low price for a high demand item exceeded Amazon's capacity to deliver. So Amazon should have... charged more, reducing the demand, so that they'd have the capacity to deliver?

Charge more for less service to throttle the demand to your capacity, or pay more to upgrade service so you can charge less and hope the volume of sales maximizing demand covers the cost of the upgrade in service.

Is balancing this equation why broadband speeds in the US aren't increasing as fast as other countries'?